In silico analysis of the food allergy-related pathways and the potential role of dietary mirnas

Official URL: https://risc01.sabanciuniv.edu/record=b2583881_(Table of contents)

Food allergy is developed as a reaction of the immune system to certain allergens affecting ~5% of adults and ~8% of children, and the severity of the immune response ranges from mild (i.e. brief itching) to life-threatening (i.e. anaphylaxis). Food allergens that are reported to cause major burden in allergic individuals can be consumed in a regular diet such as peanut, egg, milk, soy, wheat and fish. Such an easy access to common food allergens signifies the importance of understanding patient’s food allergy profile. Despite the research efforts worldwide, the World Allergy Organization (WAO) announced that, as of 2019, there is no active treatment against food allergy. Therefore, the patients are utterly encouraged to avoid any possible exposure to the allergen(s). In addition, it has been shown that food allergy is becoming more prevalent in the Western and developing populations for the last ~20 years, which shows a need for better diagnosis and prevention. In our study, we investigated the possible role of dietary miRNAs in food allergy in multiple ways by performing protein activity enrichment analysis and miRNAtarget prediction. Initially, we obtained mixed or contradictory pathway enrichment results via traditional Gene Ontology and Gene Set Enrichment Analysis. By employing VIPER statistical method, we were able to account for individual contribution of genes on the development of food allergy. Candidate genes obtained in our in-silico analysis, can be potentially used for biomedical purposes after experimental validation.